"Official" ASRock ION 330 nettop thread - Page 7

External blu ray works (USB or ESATA), but if you want to replace the internal drive, yes...it must be a slim drive. As far as what model of drive, I am not sure what will work. Generally speaking, any standard well known brand name drive SHOULD work just fine.

-Sinjen

I am very interested in the ASROCK ION 330HT, but I have an Onkyo TX-NR801 that doesn't have any HDMI ports and a Panasonic TH-42PX600U that has two HDMI ports.

Very similar question was posted at thread #59, but I haven't seen an answer.

My question is will the 330HT simultaneously push video out through the HDMI and audio out through the SPDIF like is explained below?

For Video: 330HT -> HDMI Out -> Panasonic HDMI In
For Audio: 330HT -> SPDIF Out -> Onkyo SPDIF In

From my reading of the forum and ASROCKs documentaiton I believe that the answer should be 'yes' but am hoping someone on this forum can verify.

Thanks in advance.

HELP!

Got mine today, an ION 300. Prior to installing an OS, I updated the bios to 1.60. Now time to load the OS. I had an 80gb 2.5 spare, which I intend to use.

Now upon loading Win7, I keep getting the BSOD!!! This is so frustrating. Msg states "A driver has overrun a stack based buffer 0x000000F7".

Any ideas why this is occurring? Didnt format the HDD prior to the install because I was going to do that during install.

EDIT - Now I'm getting a "STOP: c000021a (Fatal System Error)" Error. I have a something to do with the board. Would it be possible that its RAM related? I'm using a Patroit 2GB stick / DDR2 / 800MHZ, which is per spec.

I did limited testing while setting up two units;

ION330 -> HDMI Out -> TV DVI In

ION330 -> SPDIF Out -> AVR SPDIF In

The media playback was from different sources (DVD/BD drive, HDD, LAN and WiFi) and everything worked as expected during the test, YMMV.

FYI! you don't introduce an unformated HDD with old data still in it to a brand new system and expect things to go smoothly, especially if it's going to be your OS drive.

I suggest you format the spare drive before you use it or use the new drive to install the OS, after you do that, you can make an image of the drive and transfer it to the spare *formated* drive.

What is the difference between the 330HT/BD and the 330Pro in terms of an infrared receiver? I can't find any documentation on what the infrared receiver is... is it an external usb infrared receiver or is it intregrated into the hardware? The 330HT and 330HT-BD models have the ir receiver because they come with a remote. Can anyone who purchased the 330Pro let me know if it in fact comes with an ir receiver?

Thanks.

What's everyone's view on remotes for htpcs? ir remote ... wiimote ... mouse/keyboard?

Canada Computers never seem to have the 330HT-BD version in stock. any other place I can score for a similar price or better?

I dont see why not? You get a chance to format it during the install.

And FYI ... it was a faulty RAM issue. Upon replacing the RAM, OS installed properly. So no issues with the HDD being used previously when you get to wipe it out during the install process anyway.

My next Q relates to MPC-HC and DD / DTS soundtracks. When playing these (source MKV), the amp shows Pro Logic II.

My gear:
- ASRock ION 330 with Win7
- Denon AVR 1606
- Audio Connection - SPDIF

When I do a sound test via Win 7 for DD and DTS, the amp shows DD and DTS, respectively. VLC and XBMC also show DD for the same MKV file but both players have their own issues:

- VLC: Stutters (audio and video) / PQ not as clear as MPC-HC
- XBMC: Struggles to output HD files (or even 720p MKVs). Not on the ASRock anyway. Again stutter on both daudio and video.

My main player of choice is MPC-HC anyway. However I need to know what the right config is in order to output DD and DTS.

Installed ffdshow audio and made that the preferred external filter. Didnt change the output.

Any thoughts?

^^
XBMC live will give you better off load to GPU for mkv files. if you go over to the xbmc forum for windows support, you'll see they are on cusp of true off load to GPU (they have some betas in process). or you can use DSPlayer.

The GPU offload they are close to is for the Window 7 environment.

for DSPlayer: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=61355

Hi I got my asrock 330ht about 2 weeks ago, and the only way I can get video is through my vga port to tv and sound through optical port to stereo. My setup is denon avr 590 receiver sony 32" bravia and asrock 330ht with windows 7 home pre. If I use the hdmi I get sound but no picture so I tried safe boot and I can get the picture. Is it a nvidia driver problem? I have tried the latest drivers

Hi All,

So I have the inherited the AsRock 330 from a friend and am trying to figure out the optimal configuration to avoid 1080p stutter. I'm streaming from a DNS-323 NAS, but have also tried local files. So far I've tried:

Win7 - Media Browser and Boxee
Ubuntu - Boxee

Both seem to stutter pretty badly with 1080p content (h264 mkv's) but not too bad with 720p.

Can people post their working configs so I can try and get a good starting point to work from? Would be appreciated!!!

Thanks!

• Asrock ION330-HT with Media Center Remote
• 47" Toshiba 1080p LCD connected via HDMI
• Connected to my network via 100mbit wired connection for streaming from a central server.
• Vista Home Premium SP2 fully patched
• MediaBrowser 2.2.1(aka the Firestorm release)
• CoreAVC 2.0 (this is the important piece, uses CUDA for HW acceleration - even on non DXVA compliant content)
• AC3filter 1.63b configured for pass through for DTS and AC3 to my Onkyo Receiver via optical connector

Typical titles being viewed with my ION330 range from 480p standard DVD to high bitrate 1080p h.264 (AVC). I think the highest bitrate title I have is around 14 or 15mbit. I have ZERO stutter for any content I just listed with CPU utilization not going above 50 or 60% on the heaviest content. Typical utilization for 720p content is around 20%. VC-1 formatted HD video is a problem as CoreAVC does not support hardware acceleration via CUDA. The 10.1 beta of Flash also offers some hardware acceleration for HD flash content, but I have no experience with it as of yet. I've only read the experiences of others, which looks promising.

My main focus has been playing DVD's and my ripped Blu-ray's. Both of which play beautifully on this little box.

Thanks, I'll try this out and post results.

Good to know about VC-1, I do have a small handful of VC-1 videos.

Why don't you use MPC-HC to playback the VC-1 content? It may solve the playback problems you're having.

The stuttering your are experiencing is because you are using Software rendering (relying on your CPU) rather than Hardware rendering and using the ION video card. As I've said before, don't install codecs unless you need them. Let Windows try to do its thing + using the lastest video drivers.

I've never gotten hardware acceleration with VC-1 Blu-ray rips when using Windows' default WMV decoder.

CoreAVC did the trick wonderfully, expect for VC-1 which SinJen already pointed out. Thanks!

I'd use MPC-HC, but it has to be idiot proof for my wife and kids to use... that's why I was hoping to use Boxee, but Media Browser is almost as good, worst case scenario I'll just replace my VC-1 content.

So no one has had success with Boxee on Linux with VPAUD enabled?

As a point of reference, if you want to convert your VC-1 titles to AVC, MediaCoder does and excellent job when coupled with a CUDA capable gpu. Although, the interface is a bit flakey. I don't use the ION box to convert, but my desktop with a nvidia 9800gt (128 CUDA cores, I think), converts 2 hour titles in almost REAL TIME. I only had 4 titles that were ripped to VC-1 so it wasn't that big a deal to convert them. Btw, if you do convert them to AVC, be aware that converting the audio if it's in WMA format is rediculously difficult. I wound up using the NERO AAC encoder along with MediaCoder to convert the tracks to 5.1 channel AAC. It's not ideal for me, but it worked and the sound quality was acceptable.

-Sinjen

So nobody using Boxee on Linux?

I got mine from NCIX. com for something like $570.


The IR receiver is built into the unit. As far as I know, the Pro does not come with a receiver.


I'm using a customized version of XBMC live that was posted on the XBMC website (I'd link to it, but a lightning strike took the website down) and everything is working great. Flawless 1080p playback of .mkv movies (technically it needs the h.264 codec for GPU offloading, but almost all .mkv files are h.264) over a wired network. Everything is gigabit and CAT6 except my desktop with the movies on it only has a 10/100 card.

I do own the Asrock 330 since several months now. Using Ubuntu 9.10/AMD64, with XBMC 9.10 (= latest stable).

Some stuff i keep on the 320 GB HDD, but most is on my terabyte fileserver in my home office.

Plays anything nicely up to 1080p. Connected is an LCD via HDMI and Audio is done via SPDIF/Toslink directly to my AV-Receiver.

Connected is an xbox360 remote with xboxdrv http://pingus.seul.org/~grumbel/xboxdrv/.

A good benchmark is the "killa sample". It's a short sequence from the movie "planet earth". h264, 1080p, 5.1 AC3. Bitrate goes up to 40-45 MByte/s (that's MByte not MBit ) Whenever you system can play that nicely, your setup is right.

Asrock Ion 330Pro (owned about 2 weeks, replaces Shuttle SK41g)
LG 42LH40 LCD @ 1920 x 1080 x 59 hertz
USB-UIRT
DirecTV RC64 Remote
Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate
EventGhost 0.3.7.r1436
Zoom Player Home Max
ffdshow tryouts revision 3267 + Haali Media Splitter 1.9.355.21 (for x264 DXVA currently, but considering buying CoreAVC 2.0)

I'm using HDMI for video and audio to the LCD, worked with MS drivers but upgraded to the Nvidia 196.34_desktop_win7_winvista_64bit_english_beta

I'm also using the Line-in and Line-out audio jacks for a mic and headphones (keeps the family sleeping happily) -I don't have a receiver to take advantage of the optical audio, and no headphone-out (not mini-plug, nor RCA, just TOSLINK from the LG TV (really the only disappointing feature of the LG box so far, after about 3 months)).

....the chipset driver installation was a bit tricky, seems I haven't owned Nvida in a while, and the All-In-One is not heavily advertised on Nvidia's site, and the Asrock downloadable version is outdated.

Ok after quite a bit of installing and reinstalling windows 7 home p 64 I finally have video through hdmi. But I can only get sound when it is an elert sound or youtube not wmc. I can however get sound through optical and vga setup.
I also installed mythbuntu in dual boot and get no sound at all

So I've opted for XBMC live installed on my ASRock 330 and so far so good. No lag issues or audio issues.

Now the last thing I have to work out is getting it to work with my Harmony 880. I have the basic ASRock 330 so no included IR receiver. Can anyone recommend one? All the searches I do come back with the receiver and remote, which I don't need. However I'll buy the remote also if someone can give it the thumbs up.

Thanks!

No XBMC experience here, sorry, but I do have 2 harmony 670's used with my Vista HTPC's.

Honestly though, in looking for a receiver without a remote...the options are slim. You're stuck with grabbing something off Ebay, or just buying one with a remote. I ended up with the latter. I found a receiver remote combo for $20 on newegg with free shipping. Actually, I bought two of them, they work very very well...the remotes just live in their box.

-Sinjen

Thanks for the feedback Sinjen, can you post the vendor or PM me the link?

Thanks!

You bet. HA-IR01SV No free shipping at the moment, but they run that special fairly often. Still, it's only around $25 shipped.

Also note the comment posted on 2/22/10 on the newegg reviews for that product regarding XBMC Also note the first comment All I can say is that the 2 I have work very very well, and they get moved around A LOT. Your mileage may vary obviously.

-Sinjen